As heir apparent to one of Britain’s most illustrious titles, the Honourable Nicholas Knatchbull has a gilded and privileged life.

Godson of the Prince of Wales and great-grandson of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, he was schooled at Eton and raised at Broadlands, one of the finest Palladian mansions in England.

When he inherits the title Lord Brabourne from his father, he will also come into a fortune estimated at £100million. The contrast with his new fiancee’s background could hardly be starker.

Brought up on a shabby council estate and then at a home for young single mothers, Zeaphena Badley was 15 when she had her first child. Her second was born two years later.

Knatchbull, 29, who has battled addiction to drugs including crack cocaine since his schooldays, proposed to Anglo-Jamaican Zeaphena shortly after the engagement of his childhood friend Prince William, and announced the news to his friends last week, the Mail has learned.

They reacted with surprise, arguing that the aristocrat, currently working as a techno DJ under the name Safe As Milk, needs to concentrate on fighting his demons. Others have cast doubt on 28-year-old Zeaphena’s suitability to become the 9th Baroness